Color-coded Continents!

Scroll down to view reconstructions of continental motions from 620 million years ago through the present. Land masses are color-coded to make it easier to track the pieces of the continents as they move about. These reconstructions were developed by C. Scotese and the PALEOMAP Project at the University of Texas. To learn more about how geologists reconstruct past continental positions, click here.

390 million years ago

420 million years ago

450 million years ago

490 million years ago

520 million years ago

560 million years ago

590 million years ago

620 million years ago

The Earth today

These remarkable figures are produced by C.R. Scotese and the PALEOMAP project. Geologists call these illustrations paleogeographic reconstructions, because they illustrate the reconstructed geography of our Earth at some time in the past.

Making a paleogeographic reconstruction begins by examining several lines of evidence including: paleomagnetism, magnetic anomalies, paleobiogeography, paleoclimatology, and geologic history. By combining all available evidence, geologists are able to construct paleogeographic maps, such as these, that interpret how the geography might have appeared at a specific location and time in the past. Paleogeographic maps are continually being refined as more evidence is collected.